Pitchfork

Nikki Sudden still has a few posthumous appearances to go before he can compete with Tupac, but it's nice to hear his voice again, especially in such fine form. Al DeLoner, former guitarist for Norway's long-running folk-rock trio Midnight Choir, creates a landscape of dejection with leaden piano chords and sparsely weeping slide guitar, bringing in a little bit of sad accordion toward the end. The production is so intimate that you can hear a chair squeaking at the beginning of the song, and Sudden sounds like he's sitting right next to you, especially when the instruments drop away at the end, leaving just his raw utterance: "you don't want to sleep alone for the rest of your life, and sure as hell neither do I." It feels a little weird hearing someone whose life is over say that, but "Wake Me Up" is a powerful final encore for Sudden, and a creeping portrait of the buoy of love turning into the stone of longing.